The U.S. Justice Department has accused Iran of plotting the assassination of President-elect Donald Trump.

“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

During the FBI’s investigation into another case, a 51-year-old man from Iran with Afghan citizenship said that a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, he had been instructed by Iran to present and implement a plan to assassinate Mr Trump.

The investigators consider the statements to be credible.

A few weeks ago, Mr Trump’s campaign team announced that it had been informed by the U.S. Secret Service about real and concrete threats from Iran to assassinate him.

The U.S. judiciary has brought charges against the 51-year-old and two other men also accused of plotting to assassinate an Iranian dissident.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the men. “There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” warned Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security,” Mr Gerland insisted.

In his first term as U.S. president, Mr Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Iran, imposed new sanctions against the country, and classified the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation.

In 2020, the U.S. military killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Mr Trump’s orders.

(dpa/NAN)